In ERB-APA #39 my 1872 chronology revealed Tarzan arrived in Baltimore, Maryland on August 14, 1893. That is also the very day Robert Canler drives up in a car at the Porter's Wisconsin farm. After finding the Porter's Baltimore home the jungle lord discovered Jane and her father had recently moved to northern Wisconsin, and that Robert Canler was on the way to marry her. On August 22, 1893, Tarzan arrives at the Porter's Wisconsin farm driving a French car.
I know that many times we have read in the ERB zines that Tarzan and Robert Canler could not have been driving cars in an 1872 chronology. That is not true, however. What is true is that Robert Canler could not have driven a car exactly as described in Tarzan Of The Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs the author from Chicago, Il. described Robert Canler's car as a purring six-cylinder. The first six-cylinder motor produced was a Napier and it was built in London and Boston from 1906 through 1909. Since Robert Canler was in Wisconsin on August 22,1893 a six-cylinder was an impossibility.
1908 Cadillac |
September 1893 Durya |
By 1873 in France, the company of Amedee Bollee was producing steam carriages for private owners at Le Mans. In the 1880s the first steam race took place in Paris, France on a course from Saint James to the bridge over the Seine at Neuilly. The second race was on a twelve-mile course between Neuilly and Versailles. Both were won by pioneer steamer Georges Bouton. By the 1890s in England, France, and Germany steam vehicles of various kinds were in production.
1873 Obeisance |
1890 Peugeot |
After Alphonse Beau de Rochas, a Frenchman proposed a compression engine, N.A.Otto, a German, built one in Germany in 1867. Later improvements by Otto and by Gottlieb Daimler, also a German, were made to the compression engine. Daimler patented the first light internal combustion engine in 1883. Karl Benz, also a German, completed his first tricycle in 1865, and on January 29, 1886, Benz Patent DRP 37435 paved the way for the motor vehicle as a complete unit. Daimler quickly followed with his first vehicle which was also patented in 1886.
Karl Benz's first car was at the Paris Exhibition of 1887 and began to attract French sales. The car was called the Roger-Benz. This is also the year Daimler's French agent, Edward Sarazin, persuaded the Paris company of Panhard et Levassor to make their German engines. When Sarazin died in 1887 his widow, Louise, kept on with his work. The widow visited Daimler in Constant and brought back one of his new engines as a pattern. Both Benz and Daimler had autos at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. Daimler produced his twenty-cylinder engine and in the following year a four-cylinder.
Although Robert Canler could have very well driven the Roger Benz or a Daimler auto, they could not have been the maker of Tarzan's car. Although both autos fit the time period perfectly, they are German-made. Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, clearly states in both Tarzan Of The Apes and The Return Of Tarzan that the ape-man is driving a French car.
A Peugeot is my first brand pick of the steam motorcar Tarzan was driving in Wisconsin. It was a French car, and it existed in the time period described. Since it was the first French-made car it would also probably be the most obtainable. My second pick would be a Panhard steam motorcar. They appeared in the Steam version in 1891. It is possible that Tarzan could have driven a Panhard in Wisconsin, but if you study the marketplace where each brand was intended a Peugeot steam motorcar is the best bet.
In August 1888, William Steinway, owner of the Steinway and Son's piano factory in New York, talked to Daimler about US manufacturing rights and signed a contract on September 9, 1888. Daimler Motor Company was founded on Steinway Avenue, Long Island, New York. Thus, before any US markets had begun production, in 1891 the Steinway company issued illustrated brochures on gas and petrol engines for tramway cars, carriages, quadricycles, fire engines, boats, and industrial purposes being offered by the German parent Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft. The first US engines were made under license in 1891 at Hartford, Connecticut. By all practicability, if Robert Canler was driving a gas-powered car, instead of steam or electric, it would be an imported Daimler from the Steinway's.
The first US car manufacturer was Frank Duryea. Note this says manufacturer, for there were several car builders at this time. In 1892 Duryea began building an engine designed by the Pope cycle company, of Hartford, Connecticut, to fit into an existing horse buggy, but it was a financial failure.
Duryea lost his backer Erwin F, Markham, but made the second car on his own. In the US Duryea's first gas-powered motorcar took to American public streets on September 21, 1893, in Springfield, Massachusetts. In September 1895 he formed the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, which was also based in Springfield, Massachusetts. He adopted the Benz engine and formed a British company to sell cars in the UK. This true-life historical info proves that both Tarzan and Robert Canler were driving steam motorcars in August 1893 during their Wisconsin travels which occurs before the Duryea September event.
Elwood Haynes is credited for producing his first automobile in 1894. If true, Haynes' auto was produced a year too late for Tarzan and Robert Canler to own in Wisconsin. But an old company advertisement claims The Haynes-Apperson Company of Kokomo, Indiana was the oldest US auto company and produced autos in 1893. If this claim were true Robert Canler possibly could have been driving one of Haynes' earliest autos. Very unlikely, however.
Henry Ford |
Although both Robert Canler and Tarzan left Baltimore, Maryland, and traveled to northern Wisconsin it's very improbable the two actually drove their cars there. The biggest clue is the amount of time required to accomplish such a drive. Americans depended on their railways for long-distance travel. Outside of towns and cities, paved roads were rare.
1893 Empire State Express |
Some of Steinway's Daimler gas-powered cars were shown at the Columbia Exhibition in 1893 in Chicago, Illinois. There was an electric lighting vehicle fitted with a 10-hp engine, three small 2-hp cars, a 2.5-hp, a 6-hp fire pump, a motorboat with a 10-hp engine, and 2-hp and 3-hp Daimler engines. In June 1893 William Steinway wrote to Daimler about the sensational success of these first vehicles in America, pressing him to visit Chicago to demonstrate his cars and explain their construction. Robert Canler was most probably driving one of Steinway's steam cars during his Wisconsin visit.
There was another interesting aspect of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Edgar Rice Burroughs, father owned the American Battery Company on South Clinton Street in Chicago. It so happens the American Battery Company staged an exhibition at the fair and supplied batteries for electric automobiles. It was Ed Burroughs', and his brother's, job to drive a nine-seater electric car around the fairgrounds. You can see Edgar Rice Burroughs' ticket dated September 16 in Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Man Who Created Tarzan by Irwin Porges, page 77 in the soft edition.
According to my 1872 chronology, ERB-APA #39, Tarzan Of The Apes ends on the evening of August 22, 1893. At its close, we discover the Porter party at the railway station in northern Wisconsin waiting for the train to return to Baltimore, Maryland. Tarzan is there also, and he receives the cablegram revealing that he is Lord Greystoke. The Return Of Tarzan in a chronology opens at the exact time and date but in chapter twelve, not chapter one. Here we have the train engine coming into sight and William Clayton discovering the jungle lord's discarded cablegram.
The broken-hearted ape-man could not bear riding the train with Jane and William Clayton so at the very last minute he said, "You may tell the others of my decision to drive my car on to New York -." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. We also know that after New York the ape-man plans to return to France because of Jane's statement to Clayton. "No," she replied; "at the last minute he was determined to drive his machine back to New York. He is anxious to see more of America than is possible from a car window. He is returning to France, you know." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
The next time we hear of the ape-man is in chapter one of The Return Of Tarzan. The jungle lord is three days cut of New York on board a French ocean liner bound for France. The grey-eyed giant meets new friends Raoul and Olga de Coude and rivals Nickolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch. Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, also informs us in two different passages that Tarzan is twenty-two when these events occur.
"Tarzan's thoughts drifted from the past to the future. He tried to look forward with pleasurable sensations to his return to the jungle of his birth and boyhood; the cruel, fierce jungle in which he had spent twenty of his twenty-two years." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Once they are in France the jungle lord becomes a regular visitor of the de Coude's and once more Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, supplies us with the ape-man's age. "Twenty is shy in exchanging confidences with forty. Tarzan was but two years her senior." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Using Edgar Rice Burroughs, the authors, provided information we know Tarzan is twenty years old when he leaves northern Wisconsin on August 22, 1893. We also know that Tarzan was twenty-two when he was on board the steamer bound for France. Since Tarzan was born on September 1 the earliest the boating events could have occurred would be September 1, 1894. This is a passage of one year. Quite a long time to drive from Wisconsin to New York even in those days.
Exactly what occurred in that one-year Tarzan spent in the US is left unsaid by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author. Anything proposed would be mere speculation. Although it would be unofficial, I think it would be fun to speculate on the events of Tarzan's US adventure.
Let's go back to discussing cars for a second. As I have shown above it was possible for both Tarzan and Robert Canler to have driven steam motorcars in an 1872 chronology. But let's face it folks, in 1893 motorcars were just not something you see on a daily basis. They were a spectacle. So, how could Tarzan and Robert Canler both have steam motorcars if they were so rare? In those days cars were only owned by either the investor or the very rich. That explains how Robert Canler got one, but how about Tarzan?
Tarzan's car no doubt came through Paul d'Arnot. While still at the Greystoke cabin in Africa, the subject of money came up. "No, my friend," returned D'Arnot, "you need not worry about money, nor need you work for it. I have enough money, for two - enough for twenty. Much more than is good for one man and you shall have all you need if ever we reach civilization." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
It is obvious Paul d'Arnot did not obtain this much money from being in the French Navy. Since the navy occupied most of Paul d'Arnot's time it is also obvious he did not work for it either. Therefore, it is obvious Paul d'Arnot's wealth was inherited. It was Paul d'Arnot's money that bought Tarzan's first French steam motorcar.
The Germans took the early lead in compression-engine cars. The motors for the Daimler cars were even manufactured by Panhard et Levassor of Paris after 1887. The first French car was the Peugeot built in 1889. Right after the Peugeot came to the 1891 Panhard which was a steam car produced by Panhard et Levassor of Paris,
American Battery Company |
1893 RMS CAMPANIA Cunard Line Transatlantic Passager Ship |
About The Author
James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines, over a span of forty-five years. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled, Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory).instead of the more excepted date May 1888.
James Michael Moody is also the author of the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, and Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022. Swordsman On Unium is going through the publishing process.
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